This invention relates generally to test animal restraint devices, and more particularly to a rotating positioner for subhuman primate restraint systems to simulate weightlessness and minimize trauma to test animals.
Small animals, most commonly subhuman primates such as rhesus monkeys, are frequently used in ground-based studies of the effects of simulated weightlessness. These studies simulate the effects of weightlessness by immobilizing test animals for periods of time to study muscular atrophy and bone loss.
Examples of past methods of immobilizing animals include full body plaster-of-paris casts; tenectomy, or slicing and removing tendons; and denervation. Even with considerable care taken in casting animals, full body casts introduce intense psychic trauma for test animals, introducing experimental variables and delays, including abrupt termination of experiments. Weight loss and the development of decubital ulcers at bony prominences when using full body casts further reduce the length of experimental exposure. Partial casts have been used on rats, but it has been difficult correlating data obtained from quadrupeds with that from primates.
Tenectomy and denervation are operations, introducing additional variables into experiments.
A significant improvement over other immobilization techniques may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,266, to C. M. Oloff, et al. The Oloff, et al. patent describes a subhuman primate restraint system which has been successfully used in restraining subhuman primates for relatively short term centrifuge tests. The Oloff, et al. restraint system uses a combination of clamps and straps to secure the test animal to padded supports. While the Oloff, et al. restraint system is preferred over other immobilization methods, in a stationary test apparatus over an extended period of simulated weightlessness testing, it may still cause decubitus ulcers and other trauma to test animals.
It is, therefore, a principal object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for using a test animal restraint system in immobilizing test animals for simulated weightlessness and other long term tests that will minimize traumas.
A feature of the present invention is that it is an open framework design providing convenient access to the test animal.
Another feature of the present invention is that it provides for convenient positioning of the test animal for administering medication, performing tests, and other procedures on the test animal.
An advantage of the present invention is that it works independently of the specific test animal restraint method or apparatus used. Therefore, it may be used with almost any test animal restraint system.
These, and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the detailed description of certain representative embodiments thereof proceeds.